Building Institutional Repositories in Bangladesh Using Dspace: A New Paradigm of Scholarly Communication

Authors

M. Hossam Haider Chowdhury, Independent University of BangladeshFollow
Nazim Uddin, ICDDR, BFollow
Hasina Afroz, Brac UniversityFollow
Abdul Hayee Sameni, Shahjalal University of Science & TechnologyFollow

Date of this Version

10-2011

Comments

Published in Library Philosophy and Practice (2011) 9 p.

Abstract

Institutional Repository (IR) and Digital Library (DL), are relatively new concepts in Bangladesh. IR may be considered as the first step of open access to research output. Library professionals in Bangladesh understand and realize the benefits of open access, yet open access initiatives have been very few at higher learning institutions. The Government of Bangladesh also issued the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2009 in the Bangladesh Gazette on 6 April 2009, encouraging open access. However, there are many challenges, difficulties, resources constraints, and other limitations in establishing IR and DL. Despite these difficulties, some research organizations and institutions, such as the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) and BRAC University (BU) have taken initiatives to build IR and DL using DSpace software. In this article, an attempt has been taken to describe the current status of IR and DL in Bangladesh. The two above-mentioned institutions already started their project and have made significant progress in building the IR. To provide a detailed analysis of the literature on IR and digital resources, many webliographic sources, institutional librarians, and organizations were consulted. Then the situation analysis of institutional repositories, their documentary sources, workshop experience, and direct observations in understanding the current status has been performed. This paper shares the experience of ICDDR,B and BU as well as opinion of other institutions with regards to establishment of IR and DL in Bangladesh using open source soft ware DSpace. Researchers are also encouraged to get free online access to research outcomes. The open access movement and IR could contribute significantly to economic growth of the respective country by providing access to scholarly materials without the economic barriers that currently exist in scholarly publishing.